Hemp For Victory!

The guiding principle of the Grassroots Party has been the legalization of cannabis hemp for all its purposes. Let’s abolish routine pre-employment drug testing; free all cannabis prisoners, including those on probation; and expunge all judicial, police and private computer records.

No other state in the Union has a right to the products of the farm or garden—only Minnesota. In Article 13, Section 7, of the Minnesota Constitution, it says, “Any person may sell or peddle the products of the farm or garden, occupied and cultivated by him WITHOUT OBTAINING A LICENSE therefore.”

Recently, Democrats have introduced legislation to constitutionally take away your farm and garden rights by disguising their betrayal as a Constitutional Amendment to legalize cannabis; limiting how much you can grow and requiring high license fees that keep gangsters in business. If you want to put the gangs out of business then you have to take the business out of the gangs. The legal market must undercut the black market to put them out of business. In my view, taking away the fundamental constitutional rights of Minnesota’s farmers and gardeners is not an option. If Democrats succeed it will be impossible to repeal this Amendment. If Vermont can pass legalization by statute so can Minnesota. We should not tamper with the constitution.

Hemp can create jobs in farming, manufacturing, engineering, and could be a key biomass energy source to combat global warming.

The word “canvas” is related in the language to the Latin “cannabis” and for centuries was used for sailing cloth, ropes and riggings. Hemp powered all the sailing vessels the world over before the industrial revolution. Hempen canvas covered every Conestoga wagon that made settlement of Minnesota and the nation possible.

Yet, the most useful plant ever grown by humanity is “illegal.”

Cannabis hemp was demonized as the Mexican intoxicant marijuana out of hatred for racial ethnic minorities and made illegal to suppress them.

The Grassroots Party placed Jack Herer on the ballot in Minnesota for President of the United States in 1988 and 1992.

In 1989, Jack Herer and I, went to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. to locate the original copy of the obscure propaganda film, “Hemp for Victory.” This 1942 film showed the nations farmers how they could win World War II by growing hemp to make rope for the Navy. With the help of Hemp John Birrenbach, we obtained and duplicated this historical film gem for distribution around the world.

The film borrowed action scenes from the 1926 silent movie, "Old Ironsides,” culminating in a call to arms:

”Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious, with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails,” HEMP to feed, clothe, shelter and medicate; HEMP to combat climate change; HEMP for jobs; HEMP for revenue; VOTE WRIGHT and VOTE HEMP FOR VICTORY.